


Escape

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: SPN Song Challenge Fics [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU after S7, M/M, Naomi's Still Awful, No Purgatory, Non-Graphic Descriptions of Torture, Still Found the Bunker, no trials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 21:20:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11929503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Castiel disappears.  Just when Sam and Dean are starting to worry, Hannah comes to ask for their help in rescuing him from Heaven.





	Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SPN Songfic Challenge Round 14: Pentatonix  
> Prompt: [Run to You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD44wYydGVQ)
> 
> Timeline: this is AU after S7, with Dean and Cas getting out of the way of the Purgatory-sucking blast so no one went to purgatory, Crowley wasn't able to kidnap Kevin in the confusion, therefore Kevin never got the tablet to do the Trials, and Sam never hit a dog when he needed a reason to live. They still found the Bunker and moved in.

Castiel disappearing was nothing new. He disappeared all the time. He had his own stuff going on up in Heaven, most of the time.

Castiel disappearing wasn’t new. Castiel not checking in after a day or two… sometimes he lost track of time. Sam tried not to worry too much about it. Time flowed differently in Hell; it probably flowed differently in Heaven, too. Dean tended to get a little irritated, especially since cell phones didn’t work in Heaven and they couldn’t just call Cas.

Castiel disappearing wasn’t new. Hannah showing up just as Sam was starting to worry? That was. “I need your help.”

“Yeah. I’m sure you do.” Dean reached for his beer. “What’s that important? We’ve got problems of our own.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Dean, she’s a friend of Cas’s, we shouldn’t just blow her off. What can we do for you, Hannah?”

Hannah hid it well, but Sam could tell she wasn’t entirely comfortable with him. Which was fair. “Has Castiel ever mentioned an angel named Naomi to you?”

“Not that I can remember. Isn’t dealing with Heaven’s crap Heaven’s responsibility? I get why you’d want Cas’s help, but he’s not here.” Dean pulled his phone out and started scrolling through.

“No. Castiel isn’t here.” Hannah glared, and Sam took a step back. “Castiel is not here because Naomi is currently torturing him up in Heaven. I _thought_ you might be willing to help me rescue him, since he’s your friend and your ‘brother’ and you consider him part of your ‘family’, but I see I was mistaken. Forgive my intrusion.”

Dean jumped to his feet. “Wait, Cas is in trouble? Why didn’t you say so? What’s the plan?”

“I didn’t say so because someone wouldn’t give me a chance before dismissing me. The plan is you two take these cloaks and break into Heaven and rescue him.” Hannah held out a pair of rolled-up cloaks to the two of them. “They’ll make you invisible to Heaven’s senses, as long as you keep them on with the hood up. The second you take the hood down, all of Heaven will be alerted to your presence, somewhere human souls are not supposed to be. Don’t do that.”

Sam shook out his cloak and put it on. He figured he looked silly, but if it was for Cas? He’d do it. “How do we get Cas out?”

“You don’t. “

“Dammit, Hannah, we’re not…”

Hannah cut Dean off with a glare. “You take down the warding so that Cas can get himself out. If he’s too weak to do it, you slap this tracker on him. My squadron and I will come get him if need be, but if he can get himself out, we’re less likely to get back into open civil war.”

 

The cloaks worked just as Hannah said they would. They could walk right by an angel and the angel wouldn’t notice them. Dean even tested walking through an angel, and it worked.

They found Cas huddled in a small room shouting at something they couldn’t see. Dean pulled out the device Hannah had given them to find the wards, while Sam went to Castiel’s side. “Hey. Cas.”

Cas looked through him. Right. Angel. He wouldn’t be able to... “Naomi! Listen to me! You will have to kill me before I betray the Winchesters again. I would die before I let you make me hurt Sam.”

Dean and Sam exchanged startled looks. Sam waved a hand. “Cas? Can you see me?”

“This is the best fake you’ve sent, I can feel the tug of his soul.” Castiel struggled to his feet and took a step forward, his blade appearing in his hand. “No. No, I will not hurt him.” He threw the blade to the ground a few feet in front of him. He then went flying backwards as if shoved, even though neither Sam nor Dean had touched him. His eyes went glassy. “I know, Sam. How could you not see me that way? It doesn’t change my love for you.”

Sam got to his feet. “Dean. Find anything?”

“I’ve found two and marked them. Doing a sweep for more. We won’t have long after disrupting the first two before they realize what’s happening and come check, so I want to be sure we’ve got them all before we start.” Dean glanced over at Cas. Blood dripped from the angel’s nose as he took some sort of beating from the fake Sam. “Really wish Hannah had given us two of these.”

There were six warding glyphs in total. Sam and Dean made a quick plan, taking three each. As soon as Dean scratched out the last glyph, Castiel’s face sharpened as the hallucinatory beating stopped. He looked around in confusion. Sam decided to take a chance and threw down his hood, Dean following a split second later. Sam grabbed the angel’s hand. “Cas, no time to explain, can you get us out of here?”

He’d barely finished speaking before the three of them were in the Bunker. “How did you two get those cloaks? How did you know to come for me?”

Hannah stepped forward. “That was my doing. How are you?”

“Tired. Stiff. In quite a bit of pain from Naomi’s devices. I’ll recover quickly enough. Thank you for the rescue. You should get those cloaks back to Heaven before Naomi thinks to look for them.”

Hannah nodded and disappeared, and Castiel slumped into a chair. “Thank you both. I’m sorry I got captured.”

“Oh hell no. Don’t do that.” Dean sat on the table and put a hand on Cas’s shoulder. “You’re family. We aren’t leaving you behind. Our job is to help you when you’re in trouble.”

“We haven’t always lived up to that, and I’m sorry for that,” Sam added. He shifted his weight a little uncomfortably. “If you knew it was fake, why wouldn’t you hurt the illusions Naomi threw at you?”

“Oh. You… you heard some of that.” Castiel stared at his hands. “The point of that exercise was conditioning. It would start as hurting an illusion of you in self-defense, but the goal was to break me. Get me to a point where I would be willing to do whatever Naomi asked of me to you. I couldn’t have held out forever, no one ever does, but I was not going to make it easy on her by giving in quickly on the self-defense. It doesn’t matter. I’m out, and I know better than to accept a summons from Naomi or any of her followers.”

“You said something about your love for Sam… when the hell did that happen?” Dean asked. Sam ducked his head and turned away. He hadn’t planned on asking… which is probably why Dean did it.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting it or looking for it. I became aware of it when I took on Sam’s pain.” Castiel smiled grimly. “Naomi made the mistake so many do and assumed I care less for Sam than I do for you, because of the demon blood, but that hasn’t been true for a very long time now. You are both very important to me. The most important things in my life, more important than my own life.”

“Don’t say that, man.” Sam finally looked up and met Castiel’s eyes. “Don’t you dare think you’re less important than us. That’s not how family works.” Dean coughed and jerked his head toward Cas. Sam stared at him, but Dean wouldn’t flinch. He was probably right. “I never meant for you to know this, because I never thought it was possible that you’d feel even remotely the same way, but I love you. I have since you brought Dean out of Hell.”

“Even after all I’ve done to you? You, specifically, not just you and Dean as a unit?”

“It’s not your fault that angels aren’t what I believed they were. Letting me out of the panic room – orders. You broke free just a little too late, but that’s not your fault, that’s mine for being so weak. Leaving my soul in Hell was an accident. You meant to fix my wall, and you made up for it by taking the memories and the pain when I couldn’t bear up under them anymore. Now that ticking time bomb is out of my head and we’re both okay. I don’t hold any of that against you, not after everything you’ve done for us, and for me specifically.”

Castiel just stared at Sam. Dean broke the tension by clearing his throat. “Okay. You two have fun. I’m heading into town to get drunk and find somewhere else to be tonight.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Broken Bones and Tattered Clothes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13228653) by [LadyShadowphyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre)




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